KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Trinity University men's basketball team received the 2025-26 Team Academic Excellence Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches, while five Tiger players were named to the Honors Court.
The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize programs that completed the 2025-26 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. The NABC Honors Court, meanwhile, includes junior, senior and graduate student men's basketball players who finished the 2025-26 year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher. The NABC's academic awards are presented annually to teams and athletes from all levels of college basketball. Over 2,300 players earned spots on the NABC Honors Court and over 400 programs received NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards for 2025-26.
The Trinity men's basketball players honored for this past year were senior
Zach Austin (Clarkston, Mich. / Clarkston), and juniors
Ben Estis (Southlake, Texas / Carroll),
Carter Ruck (Southlake, Texas / Carroll),
Dean Balo (Dallas, Texas / JJ Pearce), and
Gabe Parr (Austin, Texas / Westwood).
"College basketball student-athletes do incredible things on the court, but their achievements in the classroom are equally worthy of celebration," said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. "Education is one of the NABC's core values, and the hundreds of programs and thousands of athletes represented on these awards reinforce the commitment to academic success that exists across all levels of our sport."
Trinity finished the 2025-26 season with a 22-7 overall record that included an appearance in the NCAA Playoffs under Head Coach
Marwan Elrakabawy. Coach Elrakabawy led the team to a share of the Southern Athletic Association Regular Season Championship and a 12-2 conference record in his first season with the Tigers.
